HILDALE, Washington County — As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they're living under a challenging edict: they're forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison.

"He has predicted that the walls in the prison where he's at will fall and crumble," said Joni Holm, who has many relatives in the polygamous FLDS faith.

According to Holm, Fundamentalist LDS Church members also face their faith's most severe punishment, excommunication, if they conceive a child.

It's one of the strangest edicts in a season full of them. Jeffs has issued a stream of revelations, prophecies and orders to his congregation in the border community of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

The recent edicts from Jeffs' prison cell seem to be having two contradictory effects. Many are leaving the FLDS faith in disgust. Those who stay are reported to be increasingly devoted to a man who is serving a lifetime sentence for raping underage girls.

According to numerous critics and outside observers, the imprisoned FLDS leader has sometimes acted through his brother Lyle and other times has spoken directly to his congregation over the phone from prison. He recently banned many of the things his followers enjoy: bicycles, ATVs, trampolines, even children's toys. But the sex edict reaches into the bedrooms of all his devoted followers.

According to Holm, Jeffs declared all existing marriages to be void.

"Right now they have all been told that they are not to live as husband and wife," Holm said. "They can live in the same house, but they are not to have sexual relationships until Warren comes out and 'reseals' them."

...yeeep. I pretty much predicted that once he was arrested, he would kick the crazy into full throttle in a desperate struggle to retain complete control over his members, and his little cult would crumble into pieces as a result.

"The recent edicts from Jeffs' prison cell seem to be having two contradictory effects. Many are leaving the FLDS faith in disgust. Those who stay are reported to be increasingly devoted to a man who is serving a lifetime sentence for raping underage girls. "

What we have here is a malignant narcissist whose grandiosity has taken him smack over Niagara Falls and whose tyranny, I hope, may be moderated somewhat when he finds himself with plural husbands, whether he wants them or not.

Great news, when you think about it. The people for whom there is still hope are leaving the cult in droves, and the ones who remain aren't going to be birthing any more brainwashed children for the cult.

As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they're living under a challenging edict: they're forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison.

By golly, if he's not allowed to rape underage girls anymore, neither are his followers! I'll bet the "wives" in these scenarios aren't too broken up about not having to service creepy old men anymore.

"They leave in disgust when they are not allowed to have sex, but the fact that their leader has raped several children does not disgust them?"

I think he was married to the underage girls, something the Bible supports so the prick had scriptual backing.

Not allowing sex however would violate the "be fruitful and multiply" concepts, amoungst others, so his members could leave the cult with an easy mind. Also, he's not there and he's not coming back, they may just have gotten their backbones back without his presence or the law put some deprogramming tactics into the mix.

I love how the rape and abuse of children didn't make any of them "leave in disgust", but when the horny old men who live in houses full of girls and women can't get laid anymore, THEN they walk out. But no, polygamy was never about sex, right?

"The recent edicts from Jeffs' prison cell seem to be having two contradictory effects. Many are leaving the FLDS faith in disgust. Those who stay are reported to be increasingly devoted to a man who is serving a lifetime sentence for raping underage girls."

Ever hear of Harold Camping? I hear the same is happening to his cult, post-Great Disappointment III late last year. And like Kent 'Oh, Mark 12:17 doesn't apply to me!' Hovind, enjoy your new position in jail, buster: mostly the 'picking up the dropped soap' one; either in the showers or over your bunk, as you become the very recipient of the exact same torture you gave those poor victims of yours, you subhuman nonce.